GOD HAS FREED US - PART 3

SATURDAY 03 JUNE 2023

God has freed us by calling us out of darkness into His marvelous light. This freedom came as a result of choosing us before the foundation of the world, and calling us to receive the glorious gospel. Simply put, those He predestined, He also called and freed them out of the darkness of ignorance and sin.

Reference: Colossians 1:13-14 New Century Version (NCV) "God has freed us from the power of darkness, and He brought us into the kingdom of His dear Son. The Son paid for our sins, and in Him we have forgiveness."

In this very topic, I have dealt with "God freeing us from the power of darkness" in part 1, and "God bringing us into the kingdom of His dear Son" in part 2. In today's article, "The Son paid for our sins" is an important clause I'm going to expound. This simply means that Christ died for us. But how?

The temptation of Jesus, according to the gospel of Luke, ended in this manner, "When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came" (NLT). That means, the devil left without remorse or apology for attempting to short-change the majesty, sovereignty and dominion of the Lord Jesus. And he left Him waiting for the next opportunity. In fact, many opportunities came later, and those temptations happened through various human techniques or strategies. In the wilderness, it was one-on-one with the devil, which I consider the first stage (see Luke 4:1-2). The second stage was throughout the period of His ministry. Then the last stage was when the devil arrested Him and got Him crucified.

During the second stage, the enemy tried to use men to short-change His glory. For instance, on one occasion, the enemy schemed to trick, manipulate, and outwit His royalty by inspiring people to make Him a king by force, but Jesus withdrew to a mountain by Himself. The Bible says, "Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone" (John 6:15 NKJV). Why? Jesus said, "I do not accept glory from human beings" (John 5:41).

In other words, their approval meant nothing to Him. In fact, even when He had encounters with people who saw His signs and wonders and believed in His name, Jesus would still not entrust Himself to them, because He knew all about people. No one needed to tell Him about human nature, for He knew what was in each person's heart (John 2:23-25 NLT). Jesus was always smarter and wiser than the devil who had invaded people's hearts in order to accomplish his mission.

Since the devil couldn't succeed, he got Jesus arrested by using the Jewish leaders. So Pilate presided over His trial and ultimately ordered His crucifixion. In all of this, one thing was sure: The enemy was after His Kingdom. For this reason, he initiated the action of the multitudes, who vehemently accused Jesus of saying that He is Christ, and were furious concerning His claim of being a King (see Luke 23:2). Much more, when Pilate asked Jesus, "Your own people and their leading priests brought you to me for trial. Why? What have you done?"Jesus answered, "My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36 NLT).

What did you perceive about Jesus' response? To gain more understanding of the apex of the last stage, which entails Christ's permanent victory over all the schemes the devil masterminded, stay tuned for part 4. Shalom!

Scripture Reading - Romans 3:22-26; Romans 5:8-10; 1 Corinthians 6:11; Romans 8:29-30.

Guided Prayer: Heavenly Father, I thank you for your unconditional love, which opened my heart to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Jesus paid for my sins, declared me righteous, and gave me the power to live a godly, glorious and fulfilled life. Therefore, I'm forever grateful that I'm free to serve you in Spirit and in truth, in Jesus' Name, Amen!